Referring again to the scrapbook of drawings, we discover that
this independent direction soon took the artist to the coast of
France - the harbours of Le Havre, Dieppe and St Malo. We have no
evidence that Barnsley knew Boudin personally, but some of the
scrapbook sketches, St Malo, la plage (18) for
instance, indicate that he must have seen the great French sea
painter's work in Salon exhibitions 1883-1887 (19) and possibly in
the Durand-Ruel comprehensive Boudin show of 1883. (20) The chance
collocation of modishly costumed figures and cabanas in the breezy
open space of the beach and the economic but agitated use of pencil
almost certainly indicate a knowledge and admiration of Boudin's
characteristic oils.

The fresh air of Boudin's spirited manner improved upon an earlier
Victorian influence - that of the English painter E. W. Cooke, R. A.
(d. 1880). Barnsley had sketched Cooke's A Fishing Haven on the
Zuyder Zee in a St Louis private collection in 1882. (21) The
subject of the National Gallery's La jetée du Pollet, Dieppe (Fig.
3), like many of Barnsley's harbour scenes, is very close to the
work-worn fleet and toiling figures of coast genre in Cooke's oil.
The Victorian slickness evident in the British marine artist's
treatment of this theme probably accounts for the element of
'finish' overlying the vitality of Barnsley's larger canvases.

For many years exhibited and published erroneously as 'Dieppe
Harbour' and later 'Dieppe, jetée des Poulets' in National Gallery
catalogues, this work is in fact the Salon painting of 1885, La
jetée du Pollet, Dieppe. Doubts about this identification are
resolved by a description in the Dictionnaire d'Art Veron for
that year, which adds the comment, Très bonne marine paysage
d'un aspect tendre, juste et vrai. (22) Other favourable
comments (23) apparently gratified the artist who wrote to the St
Louis Republican:

'My salon picture is hung on the second line, with only a
picture the same size under and in a good position. It was mentioned
in the Journal des Artistes, the day after the opening, in an
article they call "The Salon as the Crow Flies." (24)

Further clippings in the Republican indicate that this work
was exhibited at the St Louis Exposition, probably in the same year,
and sold 'to a well-known art connoisseur' of that city. (25) Perhaps
the transaction was never completed; or the canvas may have been
returned to Mrs Barnsley in view of her financial difficulties by
1894, when she displayed it in both Royal Canadian Academy and
Montreal Spring exhibitions. At least two other paintings were given
back to the artist's mother for re-sale. (26)

Another valuable insight into the painter's manner of working is
afforded by comparison of this large canvas with the oil sketch for
it in the collection of Mrs Henry Munderloh, Montreal. Although the
study may have been one of several, it is nevertheless evident that
the translation from sketch to finished work is more complex and
purposive here than it was with On the Seine, Courbevoie.Not
only are new figures and additional detail supplied (27) but the
composition, the direction and position of the ship on the left for
instance, and the mood of the subject have been altered considerably
in the studio; we can observe Cooke's influence clearly at work. The
study itself may well be one of the earliest plein air oil
paintings in Canadian art history.

Only one subsequent influence obscured the clarity and vigour shown
in Barnsley's marines and better landscapes of the mid-1880s. In1888
Anton Mauve (b. 1838) died at the height of his considerable
popularity and the summer of 1890 found Barnsley at Laren, 'the
Barbizon of Holland', which Mauve had made famous. Perhaps recalling
Loir's interest in nocturnes, the artist explored the dark
luminosities of charcoal, black chalk and pencil in drawings like St
Malo, la plage (Fig. 4), and adopted a heavy, murky use of paint
in his oils. (28) Other qualities of the Hague School, derived from
its French Barbizon antecedents - attentive observation and
objective recording of rural and domestic genre - are evident in
drawings of this period like Interior with Figure (Fig. 5),
and in the oil entitled In the Fields, Holland (Fig. 6).

Inthe latter work, particularly in the handling of planes
along the horizon, we may also discern some evidence of a most
interesting characteristic of Barnsley's last painting year - an
increasing simplification of subject and treatment alike,
culminating in a marked economy of pencil strokes to indicate sky,
shore and sea in a series of drawings around Cape Ann,
Massachusetts, (29) and a similar reduction of means to achieve
maximum statement of atmosphere, colour and light in oils. (30)
Undoubtedly related to this new facility was his development at this
time of a wash technique in water-colours, (31) which contrasts with
his usual thick handling of that medium. Unfortunately these
qualities are not predominant in the two National Gallery works of
1891, the water-colour Evening and the etching, Study from
Nature (Fig. 7), although a good selection of the spare black
ink drawings of the last days may be seen in yet another sketch book
(acc. no.771), dated 1890-1891. This search for a 'purer' way to
paint ever simpler marine subjects might be interpreted as a symptom
of the artist's approaching schizophrenic withdrawal.

But the rediscovery of J. M. Barnsley has not added a psychiatric
case study to the annals of art history. Rather he takes his place
as a quietly effective painter, able to appreciate and convey
precisely the tang of the harbour, the smack of salt wind, the
gathering shadows of a field at dusk. His moment in the development
of Canadian painting may be termed 'pre-impressionism'; certainly he
fills that gap in the Canadian assimilation of French styles between
the Barbizon manners of Roratio Walker (1858-1938) and the
impressionist technique of Maurice Cullen (1866-1934), who studied
in Paris just after Barnsley's residence there. (32) As the
retrospective exhibition catalogue points out, he may well have
influenced the young Morrice. In any case, his life's work has at
last been offered for evaluation and appreciation; it may be hoped
that he will soon be joined by others of his time who merit our
closer study.